Uninvited Guest

I recently bought a domain and started to develop a website for it. I began uploading pages a few days ago and I have been working on it constantly, trying to get it in the index on the next update. Consequently, if someone knew my URL and checked it now, then checked it an hour from now, the website could look very different. And, I created one static html page as a template, duplicated it with different names (links on my homepage) and figured I would take the basic template files, one by one, and change them to reflect the different content on each page. Bearing in mind that Google currently reports NO backlinks to my domain, I haven't pointed (linked) any other domains to this new one, how did Google visit my site? I checked my logs and Google came knocking the very first day I had files there! And, since I was still working on a very "rough draft" of the website, Google saw about 9 copies of the very same page with different filenames all cross linked to each other.

If I had known he was coming, I would have tidied up a little bit. How the hell did he find me so quickly? Anyone have a theory? And will I be penalized for it?

Chris

 

There are several possible reasons.

If you had adsense code, it immediately finds your site.

There is also a site that lists all domains from whois information.

It also could have been a previously registered domain that was given up.

What you describe is not uncommon and I wouldn't worry about it at all. It happens to me all the time. You'll be in the sandbox for at least three months and you aren't going to get a penalty as long as you didn't have hidden text or any other blackhat seo.

You can also just put a unique title on each page if you are worried about it.

 

Adsense code has nothing to do with the Google's spider

 

there are lots of sites out there with no back links and still indexed in google. its my theory that, google gets them from the DNS update on routers. anyway, u wont get penalised. coz ur domain is still too young and u said u r working on the site. google has every means to know this. they r not a bunch of stupids who wrote the algorithm. they r the best computer scientists. so dont be afraid.

But its still a good advice to use the robots.txt file to block any such uninvited visitors. if u dont want anyone to peek in to ur bedroom while u r at work , better close the door and put a do not disturb tag too.

 

Sure it does. It triggers the google bot to visit the site. I know this because I have created a domain, uploaded my pre-made content with adsense code, and have seen the google bot visit within 30 minutes of domain creation - and it was on a domain that I know had never been used before.

 

fryman probably means that the adsence spider is on a different mission... Only reading the content of the page for ads, but not looking to index...

I second the whois data for the reason of the crawl... This seems to be happening more freequently since the fact that Google became a domain registra has gone public... Maybe they using that info to crawl and find also...

 

Yes, the adsense spider isn't the google bot that performs indexing. The adsense spider hits a new page within seconds.

 

using the Google toolbar could also effect indexing pages, i noticed google crawling pages that are not linked to through a page but are visited by users using toolbar, like the admin section..The adsense bot crawls the page as you put the code in it.. usually a refresh is needed to see the results with specific ads..

 

Since you guys seem to have experience with Adsense:

Does participating in Adsense mean that your website will be indexed more favourably - Google trying to promote its own?

 

If you mean will it help your rankings, no, it has no affect whatsoever. If you are having problems with a bot visiting your site, just post a link to your site in your signature.

 

It may be that your host automatically pings for a visit from Googlebot. One of the hosts I use does that.

 

Thanks for all the replies and info. I AM indeed using Ad Sense on the new website. I have noticed Google coming by a few times each day. How can I tell if the bot is looking at the ads or interested in the website. And, I keep hearing about the sandbox. I have not yet experienced it and I have about 15 websites running. I usually link some of my sites to a new one when I'm ready and I haven't been in the sandbox yet (as I understand the term "sandbox", it's a period of a few months from brand new site to listing in Google's index?).

Chris